“The US will have to supply weapons worth more than 110 million dollars a day in order to spend the remaining funds in time.”, — write: www.unian.ua
The US will have to supply weapons worth more than 110 million dollars a day in order to spend the remaining funds in time.
After January 20, Donald Trump’s team will decide what to do with the rest of the money / UNIAN collage / Reuters photo, 93rd OMBr Kholodny YarThe administration of US President Joe Biden is running out of time to use the billions of dollars allocated for armaments for Ukraine before the end of his term of office, and after January 20, Donald Trump’s team will decide what to do with the remaining money.According to The Wall Street Journal, the administration still has more than 6.5 billion dollars left, which allows the Ministry of Defense to transfer weapons and equipment to Ukraine from its own stocks. However, officials say the Pentagon has reached the limit of the number of weapons it can send to Ukraine each month without affecting its own military capabilities, and faces logistical challenges in delivering the weapons:
“The U.S. would have to ship weapons worth more than $110 million a day, or just under $3 billion in December and January, to spend the remaining funds in time, which, according to one congressional official, “is impossible.”
At the same time, Trump’s decision on what to do with the rest of the money will have consequences for the battlefield and will determine how strong Kyiv’s influence will be in any potential peace talks with Russia. According to the WSJ, US officials now fear that the new administration may decide not to supply weapons in order to force Kyiv to come to the negotiating table.
“Scraping the bottom of the barrel”According to one of the military officials, the Pentagon currently intends to transfer between 500 and 750 million dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine every month, which is more than the average amount in previous months. However, in that case, the Pentagon would have to reduce American stockpiles to a level that would affect the readiness of the US military, which defense chiefs do not want to do.
“We’re scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of what’s easy to ship,” the official said.
U.S. defense officials said future shipments would consist mostly of ammunition and artillery, in part because they are easier to transport. Heavier equipment, such as armored vehicles or tanks, can take months to inspect, test and clear before delivery.
In addition, according to US officials, the US also has more than $2 billion left in financing long-term equipment contracts for Kyiv, and the Pentagon is working to get as much of that money under the contract as possible by January 20.
There is also just under $5 billion in funding from Congress to purchase new weapons to replenish the US stockpile. While the speed at which the administration can spend the money is limited by how quickly the Defense Department can get the weapons under contract — and how quickly the industrial base can produce them — officials have said they hope to exhaust the fund by the end of the term.
US aid to UkraineEarlier, the Pentagon announced that the US plans to provide Ukraine with $7.1 billion in aid until the end of the current US President Joe Biden’s administration. Deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh reminded that the current president wants to deliver to our country all the aid approved by Congress before the end of his term.
The Biden administration has also asked Congress for an additional $24 billion for weapons for Ukraine. Of these, 8 billion dollars will go to long-term contracts for the supply of weapons to Ukraine, and the remaining 16 billion dollars will go to the replenishment of US stocks.
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